St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-01-15
Readable Report of Supt. Riley on the
Condition of the Indian Schools
of Dakota.
The Territory Has Fifty Such Institutions
Wholly or Partly Supported by
Uncle Sam.
But Three of These Industrial Schools
1.-The Indian Should be Edu.
Gated at Home.
Recommendations in Regard to q
Training School, Indian Hos
pitfalls and Other Matters.
Special to the Globe.


of Supt. Riley this year, are improving in
character from year to year. Dakota has
more Indian schools than any other state
or territory in the United States, and her
people seem TO be more thoroughly inter-
ested in the whole subject of Indian educa
ton than the people of any other sectie
of the country. There are in Dakota ju
fifty Indian schools. These are supporte
in whole or in part by the government.
The expenditure by the government for
last year was something over S120, 900. OF
these fifty schools eight are mission schools
maintained by religious societies. Most Of
these are ordinary day schools which carry
the little Indian boys and girls simply
through the documentary books. There are
in the whole number, however, fifteen
boarding schools where pupils are kept
wholly under the control of their teachers
| and are taught more thoroughly the ways
| of civilization. There are but three indus.
trial schools-that established by Rev.
Thomas l.. Riggs at Oahe, fifteen miles
| north of Pierre, the industrial school at
THE sIssEToN AGENCY
and the school at Yankton. Many of the
! Indian youth of Dakota, however, are sent
| to the Santee normal and industrial school
on the Santee reservation in Nebraska,
where Rev. Mr.. Riggs has built up
an institution which is regarded by the
| Indian Office here as IN all probability the
most practical and helpful of its kind in the
| country. 1t has turned out excellent In
| dian mechanics and demonstrated that
| there is a practical advantage in educating
| the Indian in his own country rather than
in sending him to the East. where a change
of climate and an exaggerated shifting of
social relations initiate his mind with ideas
| of hn ,irrI,f haffN harr
received. The proportion of Indians edu-
Gated in industrial arts on the reservations
who succeed when they go back to their
tribes is much larger than that sent out by
the industrial schools located on the At
| lantic sea board. Missionary societies have
expended during the past year for Indian
| schools in Dakota something over SIS, 900.
This amount
HAS BEEN EXPENDED
under the Board of Home Missions, Presby-
terrain church; American Missionary aSSO-'
citation, Congregational church; the Bureau
of Catholic Indian missions; Board of For.
eign missions, Presbyterian church and
Protestant Episcopal church. The govern
ment, through the commissioner of Indian
affairs, has at many of these schools paid a
certain contract sum for each pupil. There
used to be time when different rates were
paid for these pupils, but Commissioner
Atkins has established the uniform allow
aEce of sos per annum in Dakota and
other territories, except New Mexico. Ari-
IONA and California, where S150-s allowed
because of the greater expense. of, nainte-
nance. Many of the missionaries in private
schools receive no pay for their services,
and give their lives as dedication to the
work of Indian education. Superintendent
Riley says that to this self-sacrifcing devo-
10 10 II1af 10 nj vii
ent prosperous condition of many of the
tribes. He earnestly recommends that
these good people should all receive the en-
cOuragement and cooperation of the gov
eminent employees. During the past year
there has been employed in Dakota thirteen
new day schools at the various agencies.
The school at Fort Stevenson, OAK, by au-
thority of Secretary Lamar,
HAS BEEN SEPARATED
from the control of the Indian agent at that
place and put in charge of a bonded super
intendent. The school occupies the build
ings formerly occupied for military pur-
poses, which have been thoroughly repaired
and enlarged so as to accommodate $50 pu-
pills. The superintendent says that gradu-
ates of reservation schools in Northern
Montana should be sent there for instruc-
ton i'll mechanical trades, for which pur-
pose the buildings and outfit are well
} adapted Of the Sioux in Dakota Mr..
Riley says that they are not only willing,
but anxious to have their children taught.
He recommends that a large industrial
school ne established for the Sioux a pro-
! vided for in the treaty of 1868. This treaty
provides that school house and teacher for
every thirty children be furnished by the
government, which has never been done,
!, and Mr.. Riley thinks the government is
, now indebted by solemn treaty obligations
|, to the Sioux to the amount of So, 500, 900,
, A training school. he thinks. should be es-
tabIished near the Great Sioux reservation
in Dakota, and graduates of the day and
5 reservation schools should be sent there for
higher instructions. This he regards as
, only an act OF
PARTIAL JUSTICE
: to people who have been so long deprived
: of higher educational facilities. AS to the
a general question of indian capability, Mr..
+ Riley says that there can be no doubt that
the Indian is progressing towards the white
mans way of living and thinking. but he
= does not believe that educated Indian boys
: and girls can be expected to depend upon
e their education for q living when they go
i, back to the reservations where their fathers
f and mothers live upon the rations issued by
. the government for their support, Under
favOring conditions the Indian, he says, is
willing to work ana apt 10 learn. Ihe
schools will be found, the most potent fac
tors in breaking up tribal relations and
leading the Indians to engage in agricult-
ural pursuits. When the Indian lands are
sold and the proceeds applied to the main
e tenance of schools for Indian youth, and
@ the adult Indians take to working for a Iiv-
@ ing, the young people who have been edu-
e Gated will have more chance in life and
d their learning will have market. AS it is
s it is simply sunk in mass of ignorance and
q savage pauperism. Mr.. Riley especially
d points out that the peaceable condition OF
: all Indian tribe does not argue its prosper
Fl ity and
|; PROGRESS IN CIVILIZATIONS;
!. that many of the most peaceable tribes are
!. the most degraded. We believe the time
:, has come to establish Indian Libraries, where
It the young children who have been taught tt
a read English books may go on with theil
: reading and cultivate love of literature
. He also thinks that the Indian children
: should be instructed in the nature o.
# alcoholic drinks and narcotics, so that there
:; may be disseminated among the tribes
e knowledge of the evils that lie in intemper
ance He points out the fact that nearly
all of the Indian schools are without hos
:. pital facilities. and recently it became neces
sary to disband one of the schools because
W of the appearance of contagious disease
n At many of the agencies there are no facli
lie ties whatever for the care of the sick. TIT
E. physician may do all he can. but if al
s. Indian becomes seriously sick there is YER
little chance of his recovery. He is left il
= his tepee with all the squalid surrounding
-.